ALEX Lees tonight followed Andrew Gale's lead by dropping himself from Yorkshire's team for their NatWest T20 Blast match against Nottinghamshire at a rain-hit Headingley.

Lees was due to sit out the county's clash with the Outlaws but steady rain throughout the evening meant no play was possible.

With England internationals Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root available – and Adam Lyth in red hot 50-over form – Lees revealed his decision this afternoon.

Overseas star Kane Williamson, New Zealand's skipper in all forms of the game, was the man handed the captaincy reins.

Given the same players are all available for Sunday's clash with Derbyshire Falcons at Headingley, starting at 2.30pm, left-handed Lees is expected to miss that fixture as well.

Lees said: "For me, it was a no-brainer. Obviously Rooty and Jonny come back into the team, so two had to miss out there.

"Adam comes into the team. You can't not play somebody who's just scored back-to-back hundreds off 60 balls.

"It's just a gentle reminder to everyone that nobody's bigger than this club and, going forward, we want to put out the best team that we can."

Lees has scored 65 runs in three Blast innings this summer, with a top-score of 46 coming in the defeat against Worcestershire at New Road earlier this month.

The 23-year-old limited-overs captain has also scored 59 runs in three Royal London one-day Cup knocks.

Early in the 2014 season, four-day skipper Gale made exactly the same call for a County Championship match against Middlesex at Lord's. Gale was short on runs and Root had returned from England duty.

Ironically, Gale pointed to the form of Lees and Lyth at the top of the order and did not want to break their opening partnership.

Tonight's abandonment, Yorkshire's third in eight days across both the Blast and RL50 competitions, is a further blow to their chances of progression in the former.

They now have a record of three defeats and two 'no results' from five Blast matches, with the other rain-off coming against Birmingham at Edgbaston last Friday.

It means they may now have to win seven of their remaining nine group fixtures to have a realistic chance of a top-four finish and a place in the quarter-finals.

Root, Bairstow, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid and David Willey are all available to face Derbyshire ahead of linking up with England's one-day squad on Sunday night.

Willey was always going to play in order to build up his match fitness following injury – but the other four have been made available because England's training facilities in Nottingham are too wet ahead of Tuesday's first ODI against Sri Lanka.

New signing Azeem Rafiq is still awaiting his second debut for the Vikings.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire were due to hold a minute's silence and wear black armbands tonight in memory of late MP Jo Cox, who was killed yesterday. They will carry that over to Sunday.

Yorkshire chief executive Mark Arthur said: "Jo was a kind, intelligent person who was generous with her time.

"She genuinely wanted to help others, particularly those in her constituency, and make a difference to their lives. My heart goes out to her husband Brendan and their two young children."